Canadian Space Agency, partners developing plans for lunar space station

The Canadian Space Agency’s head of space exploration is looking at how the CSA could contribute to a planned mini space station that would orbit the moon.

Gilles Leclerc says Canadian robotics could play a key role on the Deep Space Gateway.

The CSA is working to develop robotic arms as its contribution to a small lunar outpost to be built by international partners in the next decade.

American and Russian space agencies signed a statement long-term space projects, which focus on the so-called deep space gateway. The small space station would be placed in orbit between the Earth and the moon.

“For Canada, the challenge right now is to identify what our contribution could be to humanity’s next step in human exploration,” said Gilles Leclerc, the Canadian agency’s head of space exploration.

Canada and the world’s space agencies are committed to the International Space Station until 2024.

The next destination would be the lunar station — a platform to serve as a staging point to travel to the moon’s surface and eventually, further away.

“The ultimate destination for all partners … is Mars,” Leclerc said.

A natural fit for Canada’s contribution would revolve around robotics.

Leclerc said there are three possibilities: robotic arms, moon rovers and space mining — technologies Canada already develops and could be useful.

Concept studies have started on two robotic arms that will help build and maintain the mini-station.

MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. of B.C. has been awarded a $2.75 million contract to work on the new Canadarms.

Paul Fulford, MDA’s product development manager, said the current concept involves an eight-metre manipulator arm and a smaller one-metre arm.

“The CSA are asking that we explore the notion of a small multi-purpose arm — one that could work inside the space station and possibly on the surface of the moon as well,” he said.

Fulford said the new robotic arms could be operating on the lunar outpost in the 2020s, which would help get a Canadian astronaut to the moon.

Leclerc said the future of the station will depend on the means of transportation to get back to the moon. NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS), a giant rocket developed with deep space travel in mind.

The SLS would be topped with an Orion capsule with a crew of four.

A tentative plan would see an SLS rocket travel around the moon unmanned in 2019 and another after that to come within three years — this time with astronauts.

“There’s going to be at least three missions to construct the deep space gateway from 2020 to 2026,” Leclerc said, after which the station would be manned.

Canada’s newest astronauts, Jennifer Sidey and Joshua Kutryk, started basic training last month and space flight is at least five years away.

This is a huge day! Pretty exciting! Thank you to everyone who supported me so much over this year-long process. You have been incredible! pic.twitter.com/hIgy0B9gnB